Download Jews and Christians throughout History

In conjunction with the
Jews and Christians throughout History
13th c. Statues of Synagoga and Ecclesia
from the South Portal of Strasbourg Cathedral.
Photo courtesy of flickr user Johnathon Khoo.
This course will explore a number of issues which emerge from the history of Christian
theology: How did a negative image of Judaism develop within Christianity? In what ways did
these unfavorable teachings contribute toward violence against the Jews over the centuries?
What is the relationship between Christian anti-Jewish teachings and Anti-Semitism? Is there
any corresponding Jewish hostility towards Christians? In what ways have Jewish authors
reacted to developments within the Christian tradition?
Professor Michael A. Signer, Rabbi
Theology Department
University of Notre Dame
Rabbi Michael Signer is Director of the Notre Dame Holocaust Project, and is the Abrams Chair
of Jewish Thought and Culture.
Prior to joining the faculty in 1992, he served as Professor of Jewish History at Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles.
His interest in interreligious affairs began during his doctoral studies at the Center for Medieval
Studies at the University of Toronto, and he later participated in the Priest-Rabbi dialogue at St.
John’s Seminary, where he and others founded the St. John's/Hebrew Union College academic
exchange.
He has taught in universities in Berlin and Augsburg, and was American Jewish Committee
Scholar at Catholic Institutions in Poland.
Rabbi Signer is the author and editor of five books on topics that range from Medieval Latin
biblical commentaries to contemporary Jewish-Christian relations, and is one of the four authors
of Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity.
Syllabus
Course Description
In the final days of the II Vatican Council the publication of Nostra Aetate (Declaration on non‐Christian Religions) reversed a negative attitude of the Catholic Church toward Judaism and the Jewish people as well as toward Muslims and Hindus. This remarkable change promoted "dialogue" with Jews, and positive changes in the ways in which Judaism was presented in Liturgy and Catechesis. Reactions from the Jewish communities were diverse: from rejection to welcoming. Subsequent documents produced by the Vatican as well as Bishops’ Conferences have brought more Jews into dialogue with the Catholic Church. This course will explore a number of issues which emerge from the history of Christian theology: How did a negative image of Judaism develop within Christianity? In what ways did these unfavorable teachings contribute toward violence against the Jews over the centuries? What is the relationship between Christian anti‐Jewish teachings and Anti‐Semitism? Is there any corresponding Jewish hostility towards Christians? In what ways have Jewish authors reacted to developments within the Christian tradition? As we survey the past, we shall also want to explore the possibilities of a more constructive theological relationship between the two communities for the future. How can Jews and Christians develop religious responses to modernity? In what senses can a study of Judaism by Christians, or Christianity by Jews, help either community to understand itself better? How can Christians and Jews develop a theology of "the other" which is not triumphalist, but empathetic and based on love and justice? Course Objectives
1. The students will be able to define and evaluate basic concepts that have been the subject
of controversy between Christians and Jews.
2. The students will discern the distinctive characters of pre-modern and modern Christianity
and Judaism.
3. The students will be able to reflect critically on the subject matter of the course, and
evaluate how it affects their own theological ideas. Prerequisites
None Required Textbooks
Harold W. Attridge, Hermeneia ‐ A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible, The Epistle to the Hebrews Hardcover: 437 pages. Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers (April 1989) Language: English. ISBN‐10: 0800660218. ISBN‐13: 978‐0800660215 Mary C. Boys, Has God Only One Blessing? Judaism as a Source of Christian Self‐Understanding Paperback: 416 pages Publisher: Paulist Press (March 2000) Language: English ISBN‐10: 0809139316 ISBN‐13: 978‐0809139316 Jeremy Cohen, Living Letters of the Law; Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity (The S. Mark Taper Foundation Imprint in Jewish Studies) Paperback: 461 pages Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (November 11, 1999) Language: English ISBN‐10: 0520218701 ISBN‐13: 978‐0520218703 National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholics Remember the Holocaust Product Code: 5‐290 ISBN: 1‐57455‐290‐2 http://www.usccbpublishing.org/searchproducts.cfm Frymer‐Kensky et. al. Christianity in Jewish Terms Paperback: 464 pages Publisher: Westview Press; Reprint edition (March 19, 2002) Language: English ISBN‐10: 0813365724 ISBN‐13: 978‐0813365725 Katharine T. Hargrove, Seeds of Reconciliation Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: D. & F. Scott Publishing (June 1996) Language: English ISBN‐10: 0941037401 ISBN‐13: 978‐0941037402 Joseph Kimhi, The Book of the Covenant Paperback: 88 pages Publisher: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies (November 1998) Language: English ISBN‐10: 0888442610 ISBN‐13: 978‐0888442611 Hyam Maccoby, Judaism on Trial Paperback: 245 pages Publisher: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization; New Ed edition (June 1993) Language: English ISBN‐10: 1874774161 ISBN‐13: 978‐1874774167 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Many Religions, One Covenant: Israel, Church and the World Paperback: 113 pages Publisher: Ignatius Press (September 1999) Language: English ISBN‐10: 0898707536 ISBN‐13: 978‐0898707533 Encyclopaedia Judaica Hardcover Publisher: Keter Publishing House Ltd. (1972) ASIN: B000ENG764
Mary C. Boys [editor], Seeing Judaism Anew: Christianity’s Sacred Obligation Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (April 28, 2005) Language: English ISBN‐10: 0742548821 ISBN‐13: 978‐0742548824 Adele Reinhartz, Befriending the Beloved Disciple, A Jewish Reading of the Gospel of John Paperback: 208 pages Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group (October 2002) Language: English ISBN‐10: 082641446X ISBN‐13: 978‐0826414465 Michael Fishbane, Judaism Revelation and Traditions (Religious Traditions of the World Series) Paperback: 149 pages Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco; 1 edition (December 23, 1987) Language: English ISBN‐10: 0060626550 ISBN‐13: 978‐0060626556 Robert Seltzer, Jewish People: Jewish Thought Paperback: 873 pages Publisher: Prentice Hall (October 9, 2003) Language: English ISBN‐10: 0024089400 ISBN‐13: 978‐0024089403 Readings 1. Unanswered Questions, Ed. Roger Brooks, Notre Dame Press, 1986 2. The Church and the Nineteenth Century, Raymond Corrigan, The Bruce Publishing Company, 1938, pgs. 289‐295. 3. The Apostolic Fathers, ed. by Fr. Jack Sparks, Light and Life Publishing, 1978, pgs. 263‐301. (Session 3) 4. Melito of Sardis in The Christological Controversy, trans. and ed. by Richard A. Norris, Jr., Augsberg Fortress Press, 1980, pgs. 33‐47 (Session 9) 5. In Answer to the Jews, Treatises on Marriage and Other Subjects/The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, St. Augustine, ed. Roy J. Deferrari, Catholic University of America Press, 1955, pgs. 391‐413. (Session 9) 6. Mekhilta de‐Rabbi Ishmael, Volume II/Tractate Baodesh, ed. by Jacob Lauterbach, Jewish Publication Society, http://www.jewishpub.org/product.php?isbn=0827606788 2004, pgs. 229‐
236. (Session 10) 7. Midrash rabbah, English, London, Soncino Press, 1939, pgs. 50‐53. (Session 10) 8. Bavli Gittin: Tractate Gittin, Folio 56b‐57a, Soncino Talmud, 1961, http://www.come‐and‐
hear.com (Session 10) 9. Christianity in Talmud and Midrash, R. Travers Herford, Ktav Publishing House, Inc., 1975, pgs. 82‐83, 118‐119, 146‐147, and 178‐179. (Session 10) 10. The Jew in the Medieval World, Jacob Rader Marcus, Atheneum Publishing, 1975, pgs. 121‐157. (Session 13) 11. Toward a Definition of Antisemitism, Gavin I. Langmuir, University of California Press, 1990, pgs. 263‐300. (Session13) 12. Soloveitchik's article in A Treasury of Tradition, ed. by Norman Lamm and Walter S. Wurzberger, Hebrew Publishing Company, 1967, pgs. 55‐80. (Session 17) 13. Jewish Perspectives on Christianity: Leo Baeck, Marin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Will Herberg, and Abraham Heschel, ed. by Fritz Rothschild, Crossroads Publishing Company, 1990, pgs. 132‐
153, 206‐226. (Session 15, 16, 18) 14. A Jewish Legal Authority Addresses Jewish‐Christian Dialogue: Two Responsa of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, by Rabbi David Ellenson, The Chronicle of Hebrew Union College, Volume LII, Nos. 1&2, Fall 2000‐2001. (Session 17) 15. Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, Essays, Abraham Joshual Heschel, ed. by Susannah Heschel, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1996, pgs. 235‐285. (Session 18) 16. Tractate on the Jews: The Significance of Judaism for Christian Faith, Franz Mussner: Trans. and with an introduction by Leonard Swidler, Augsberg Fortress Press, 1984, pgs. 1‐52. 17. Humanity at the Limit: The Impact of the Holocaust Experience on Jews and Christians, ed. by Michael A. Signer, Indiana University Press, 2000, pgs. 63‐103. (Session 20) Websites Students should utilize the following websites for additional bibliography. They contain
documentation and articles relating to problems in Jewish-Christian relations. Additional sites
can be found under “links” on the instructor’s web-page.
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•
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Jewish Christian relations
Vatican
Center for Christian Jewish Learning
Lectures
Lesson
1
2
3
4
5
6
Topic
INTRODUCTION
The three "registers" of JewishChristian relations: "disputation,
"deliberation", "dialogue".
Read: Boys, Has God Only One
Blessing? 5-14;
Freymer-Kensky, Christianity in
Jewish Terms, 1-24
Nostra Aetate
Read: Nostra Aetate off the Vatican's
website in the archives section.
Read: Boys, Has God Only One
Blessing? 15-74
Roger Brooks, Unanswered
Questions, 13-47 (READING)
BACK TO THE SOURCES:
ORIGINS OF HOSTILITY
The Problem of Christian Origins and
Jewish-Christian Relations
Read: Boys, Has God Only One
Blessing? 87-174
Gospels: Matthew and John
Read: Di Sante, "The 'Old' and 'New'
Covenants" in Hargrove's Seeds of
Reconciliation
Paul: Epistle to Galatians and Romans
Read: Di Sante's "The Torah as Law
in Judaism" in Hargrove's Seeds of
Reconciliation
Video
Lecture Two Video
Lecture Three Video
Paul: Epistle to the Romans
Read: Epistle in the Bible
Apostolic Fathers, by Fr. Sparks 263301 (READING)
7
8
9
Epistle to the Hebrews
Read: Hebrews by Harold Attridge, 134, 198-205
Time for Refection: Is there One
Story of Origins?
Read: Boys, Has God Only One
Blessing? 75-86
THE PARTED WAYS
Jews in Ancient Christian Writers
Read: Epistle of Barnabas
(READING)
Melito of Sardis, "On the passover"
(READING)
St. Augustine, "In Answer to the
Jews" (READING)
Cohen, Living Letters of the Law 2394
The Rabbis on Pagans, Sectarians,
Christians
Read: Mekhilta de-Rabbi
Ishmael(READING)
10 Midrash rabbah (READING)
Bavli Gittin(READING)
Christianity in Talmud and Midrash
(READING)
"Disputations and Polemics", Encyc.
Judaica: Volume 6, pgs 79-103.
THE MEDIEVAL ENCOUNTER:
DISPUTATION
Jews and Christians in Medieval
11 Europe
Read: Cohen, Living Letters of the
Law 95-218
Encyclopaedia Judaica "History"
Volume 8, pgs 651-692
12
Private Disputation Manuals
Read: Joseph Kimhi's, The Book of the
Covenant (whole book, but focus on
Lecture Eight Video
Lecture Nine Video
Lecture Ten Video
pgs 32-42)
At the Extremes: Blood Libel, Host
Desecration
13 Read: J.R. Marcus, The Jew in the
Medieval World 121-157 (READING)
G. Langmuir, Toward a Definition of
Antisemitism 263-300 (READING)
The Public Disputations: Christian
Evangelism and Jewish Response
Read: Maccoby, Judaism on Trial 1914 150, 153-167
Katz's Exclusiveness and Tolerance,
106-113
Cohen, Living Letters of the Law 387389
INTO MODERNITY: THE
GERMAN-JEWISH QUESTION
15 Martin Buber
Read: "Church, State, Nation, Jewry"
and "Two Types of Faith"
(READING)
16
Franz Rosenzweig
Read: "Star of Redemption"
(READING)
AFTER THE ABYSS.
CONTEMPORARY DIALOGUE
Disputation Continued?
Joseph Soloveitchik and Moses
17
Feinstein
Read: Soloveitchik "Confrontation"
(READING) and Ellensen's
JewishLeglAuthAddresses
(READING - this will be sideways)
Dialogue Renewed: Abraham J.
Heschel
18 Read: "No Religion is an Island" and
"The Jewish Notion of God and
Christian Renewal" 235-285
(READING)
19
Lecture Fifteen Video
Rethinking the Christian Relationship
with Judaism
Read: Boys Has God Only One
Blessing?, 177-278, 18-20
Systematic Rethinking
Read: Mussner, Tractate on the Jews,
1-51 (READING)
Read: Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger),
Many Religions, One Covenant:
Israel, Church and the World and
Introduction to "The Jewish People
and Their Sacred Scriptures in the
Christian Bible (2001) from the
Vatican Website
CONFRONTING THE SHOAH:
FIFTY YEARS LATER
Read: Catholics Remember the
Holocaust (whole thing)
Klenicki, "On Christianity: Towards a
Process of Historical and Spiritual
20
Healing" in Hargrove's Seeds of
Reconciliation
Signer, Humanity at the Limit: The
Impact of the Holocaust Experience
on Jews and Christians, "Theology
from the Depths: New Directions in
Germany" (READING)
DABRU EMET AND A SACRED
OBLIGATION
21 Read: Dabru Emet
"A Sacred Obligation" and BC
website form (READING AND
WEBSITE)
Session Two Notes: Nostra Aetate
Nostra Aetate Lecture Questions
"What is the problem in Jewish Christian relations?"
I would like you to think about the following questions as you prepare for our discussion.
1. What view of the Church, Truth and World emerges from the 'syllabus of errors'?
2. What view of 'modernity' does the 'syllabus of errors' in Vatican I convey?
3. How does Nostra Aetate fit into the larger themes of II Vatican Council? [This would be a
question for those of you with appropriate backgrounds] What other documents of the Council
might shed light on Nostra Aetate?
4. What view does Nostra Aetate take on non-Christian religions? animism? Buddhism? Islam?
Hinduism? Buddhism?
5. What are the most important themes of N.A. 4? What previous teachings of the Church do
they correct?
If we can get through these questions we will have set ourselves up nicely to begin the historical
issues.
Session Three: The Christian Story and the Jewish People
1. How does the formulation of the "Christian story" contribute to a negative image of Judaism and the Jewish People? 2. How does modern biblical scholarship help faithful Christians rethink their Christian story in order to develop a renewed and revised image? Note the questions on p. 88. How can they be answered by subsequent readings? c.6 look at the complexity of the physical and intellectual world of Jesus. c.7 look at Jesus within the context of Temple practice and purity. How can we recontextualize this? c.8‐9‐ What models to we have for the parting of the ways? Sessions Five and Six: Pauline Epistle Lecture Notes
Pauline Epistles to Galatians and Romans
1. How does the first Christian writer assess the Jewish community and their witness to Jesus
Christ?
2. Is Paul an unambiguous source of anti-Judaism?
3. To what extent does Paul limit the notion of Judaism to the idea of nomos or “law?”
4. Does Paul indicate that there is no retrieval or hope for those who remain Jews until the
eschaton?
5. Do the epistles to the Galatians and Romans have identical images and roles for those Jews
who do not accept a belief in Jesus Christ?
Session Seven: Epistle to the Hebrews Lecture Notes
Main Theme
The Epistle to the Hebrews presents a Christian guide for the interpretation of the Old Testament
[Hebrew Scriptures]. Paul presents a dialectical tension and ambiguity about the relationship of
Jews and Christians. Hebrews sets forth a smooth flow of God’s message from the creation
through the incarnation. Hebrews presents both “rules for interpretation” and “examples of
interpretation.” The rules for interpretation utilize the idea of ‘typology’ and ‘shadow ‘and
‘light.’ The presumption is that things that are a unity or simple are superior to things that are
complex. Later Christian authors will follow the pattern of Hebrews.
Hermeneutical Rules
1:1-4
10:1-5
Examples
3:1-4 Jesus superior to Moses
5:1-8 Priesthood of Jesus superior to Aaron
9-10 Sacrifice of Jesus superior to atonement sacrifices
Rewriting the History of Israel by Faith
11
Session Ten: Rabbinic Judaism and Late Antiquity Notes
Rabbinic Judaism and Late Antiquity Lecture Notes
-70 C.E. Destruction of the Temple
-200 B.C.E. – 135/40 C.E. (Alexandrian community)
-70-90 C.E. Jamnia or Yavneh Period [transition from Pharisees to Sages to Rabbis]
-90-200 C.E. Period of Tannaim (Our Sages of Blessed Memory/Rabbis)
-200 C.E. Mishnah
-200-700 PERIOD OF AMORAIM
-“Babylonia” Successor to Persian Kingdom
-Sura/Pumpeditha/Nehardea
-Gemara: Babylonian Talmud (by 800)
-“Eretz Yisrael” successor to Judea and Byzantine Jewry
-Tiberias, Sephorris, Beit Shearim
-Antioch
-Rome
-Iberia
-Cologne
-Literary Works
-Targumim
-Gemara: Talmud Jerushalmi
-Midrash Literature (biblical homily)
-Conflicts with surrounding culture
-Pagan xenophobia against Judaism
-Sabbath
-Dietary Laws
-Atheism
-Christianity becomes official religion of the empire
Session Eleven through Fourteen: Medieval Europe Notes
Jewish-Christian Encounter: The Middle Ages Lecture Notes
Bibliography
Anna Sapir Abulafia, Jews and Christians in the 12th Century Renaissance
David Berger, The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages
Robert Chazan, Medieval Jewry in Northern France
------------------, Daggers of Faith
Jeremy Cohen, The Friars and the Jews
-----------------, Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity
Gilbert Dahan, The Christian Polemic against the Jews in the Middle Ages
Gavin Langmuir, History, Religion, Antisemitism
R. I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society
Robert Seltzer, Jewish People, Jewish Thought
Michael A. Signer/ John H. Van Engen: Jews and Christians in 12th Century Europe
Kenneth Stow, Alienated Minority
Edward A. Synan, The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages
Israel Jacob Yuval, Two Nations are in your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late
Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Geographic Framework
Iberian Jewry [Sephardim]: pre-Christian origins/Islamic hegemony
Northern European Jewry [Ashkenazim]: 9th century origin/Christian hegemony
Chronological Framework
Period I: 800-1050: Origins
-small Jewish population
-Latin documents
-Jewish legal status
Period II: 1050-1215: Expansion and Resistance
-growth of Jewish population
-Crusading movement
-private disputations: Adversus Judaeos Literature
-collaboration in biblical studies: Abbey of St. Victor, Paris
-ritual murder charges
Period III: 1215-1500: Breakdown
-IV Lateran
-Rise of Mendicant Orders
-Public Disputations: Paris (1240), Barcelona (1263), Tortosa (1413-1414)
-Expulsions: England (1290), France (1306), Spain (1492)
Session Fifteen: Stepping Stones to Modernity Notes
Late Middle Ages:
Christian interest in Hebrew language and Kabbalah (Jewish mystical literature)
Ghettoization of Western European Jewry
Migration of Jewry to Poland and the East
17th Century Humanism
-Amsterdam: Spinoza and the birth of legal studies
-England: Tolerance—Readmission of Jews to England under Cromwell
18th Century Enlightenment
-Civil Emancipation
-France: Voltaire and the Philosophes
-debates on citizenship after the Revolution
-Germany: “Aufklaerung”—Kant/Lessing
-Moses Mendelssohn (1727-1786)
-Religious Reform
19th Century: Romanticism, Historicism, Nationalism
-Eastern European situation
-Wissenschaft des Judentum (Scientific Study of Judaism): Protestant Paradigm
-late 19th century brings two reactions
-German Unification
-rise of racial antisemtism
-Zionism
20th Century: Migration, Relocation, Destruction and Rebirth
-Move to North America
-German Jewry during last of the Empire
-World War I reshapes Europe
-German Jewry during Weimar
-Shoah
-birth of the state of Israel
Session Nineteen: Systematic Approaches Notes
Franz Mussner (Professor of Theology, Regensburg Germany)
-begins with Auschwitz
--p. 148 Auschwitz as hermeneutic function [relates to N.A.]
--Election of Israel
--note Romans 9:11-13
--continuing election of Israel [p. 148]
--Land of Israel [p. 151]
--note B. Klappert’s three models of “promise of land of Israel” [p.154]
--God’s continuing covenant with Israel [p. 154
--“Joy in Torah” [p. 155]—counters the myth of ‘legalism’
--Israel as saved in Rom. 9:4 [p. 157]
--Rom. 11:26
--models of salvation—p. 166
--post-Christum salvific model of Israel [p. 168 ff]
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (as Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith; Cardinal of Munich; Professor of Theology)
“Israel, Church and World” (essay title)
Theological reflection which is grounded in Scripture
Begins with Auschwitz
Goal is reconciliation
--Emphasis is that the unity of Scripture [NT/OT] means that Christians can never be in conflict
with Judaism
--see p. 36-37
--Focuses on Catechism to reveal the emphasis on Jesus within the context of the Jewish people
--no collective Jewish guilt p.42-43
--Christian sin crucifies Jesus [Council of Trent] p. 43
“The New Covenant” (essay title)
--focus on the meaning of ‘testament’ or ‘covenant’
--the ‘fulness of the covenant in Christ’ does not diminish the Sinai covenant p. 59-60
--Covenant established by God in Christ is present in the Hebrew Bible[“faith of Israel”] p. 6367
--Covenant is relationship p. 74-77 [Martin Buber]
problems with Ratzinger
--entirely self-contained
--no way out of the system?
--what is the purpose and meaning of the Jewish people post Christum? [in contrast to Mussner]
Session Twenty-one: Dabru Emet
National Jewish Scholars Project
DABRU EMET
A JEWISH STATEMENT ON CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIANITY
In recent years, there has been a dramatic and unprecedented shift in Jewish and Christian
relations. Throughout the nearly two millennia of Jewish exile, Christians have tended to
characterize Judaism as a failed religion or, at best, a religion that prepared the way for,
and is completed in, Christianity. In the decades since the Holocaust, however, Christianity
has changed dramatically. An increasing number of official Church bodies, both Roman
Catholic and Protestant, have made public statements of their remorse about Christian
mistreatment of Jews and Judaism. These statements have declared, furthermore, that
Christian teaching and preaching can and must be reformed so that they acknowledge
God�s enduring covenant with the Jewish people and celebrate the contribution of
Judaism to world civilization and to Christian faith itself.
We believe these changes merit a thoughtful Jewish response. Speaking only for ourselves - an interdenominational group of Jewish scholars -- we believe it is time for Jews to learn
about the efforts of Christians to honor Judaism. We believe it is time for Jews to reflect on
what Judaism may now say about Christianity. As a first step, we offer eight brief
statements about how Jews and Christians may relate to one another.
Jews and Christians worship the same God. Before the rise of Christianity, Jews were
the only worshippers of the God of Israel. But Christians also worship the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob; creator of heaven and earth. While Christian worship is not a viable
religious choice for Jews, as Jewish theologians we rejoice that, through Christianity,
hundreds of millions of people have entered into relationship with the God of Israel.
Jews and Christians seek authority from the same book -- the Bible (what Jews
call "Tanakh" and Christians call the "Old Testament"). Turning to it for religious
orientation, spiritual enrichment, and communal education, we each take away similar
lessons: God created and sustains the universe; God established a covenant with the people
Israel, God�s revealed word guides Israel to a life of righteousness; and God will
ultimately redeem Israel and the whole world. Yet, Jews and Christians interpret the Bible
differently on many points. Such differences must always be respected.
Christians can respect the claim of the Jewish people upon the land of Israel. The
most important event for Jews since the Holocaust has been the reestablishment of a Jewish
state in the Promised Land. As members of a biblically based religion, Christians appreciate
that Israel was promised -- and given -- to Jews as the physical center of the covenant
between them and God. Many Christians support the State of Israel for reasons far more
profound than mere politics. As Jews, we applaud this support. We also recognize that
Jewish tradition mandates justice for all non-Jews who reside in a Jewish state.
Jews and Christians accept the moral principles of Torah. Central to the moral
principles of Torah is the inalienable sanctity and dignity of every human being. All of us
were created in the image of God. This shared moral emphasis can be the basis of an
improved relationship between our two communities. It can also be the basis of a powerful
witness to all humanity for improving the lives of our fellow human beings and for standing
against the immoralities and idolatries that harm and degrade us. Such witness is especially
needed after the unprecedented horrors of the past century.
Nazism was not a Christian phenomenon. Without the long history of Christian antiJudaism and Christian violence against Jews, Nazi ideology could not have taken hold nor
could it have been carried out. Too many Christians participated in, or were sympathetic to,
Nazi atrocities against Jews. Other Christians did not protest sufficiently against these
atrocities. But Nazism itself was not an inevitable outcome of Christianity. If the Nazi
extermination of the Jews had been fully successful, it would have turned its murderous
rage more directly to Christians. We recognize with gratitude those Christians who risked or
sacrificed their lives to save Jews during the Nazi regime. With that in mind, we encourage
the continuation of recent efforts in Christian theology to repudiate unequivocally contempt
of Judaism and the Jewish people. We applaud those Christians who reject this teaching of
contempt, and we do not blame them for the sins committed by their ancestors.
The humanly irreconcilable difference between Jews and Christians will not be
settled until God redeems the entire world as promised in Scripture. Christians know
and serve God through Jesus Christ and the Christian tradition. Jews know and serve God
through Torah and the Jewish tradition. That difference will not be settled by one
community insisting that it has interpreted Scripture more accurately than the other; nor by
exercising political power over the other. Jews can respect Christians' faithfulness to their
revelation just as we expect Christians to respect our faithfulness to our revelation. Neither
Jew nor Christian should be pressed into affirming the teaching of the other community.
A new relationship between Jews and Christians will not weaken Jewish practice.
An improved relationship will not accelerate the cultural and religious assimilation that Jews
rightly fear. It will not change traditional Jewish forms of worship, nor increase
intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews, nor persuade more Jews to convert to
Christianity, nor create a false blending of Judaism and Christianity. We respect Christianity
as a faith that originated within Judaism and that still has significant contacts with it. We do
not see it as an extension of Judaism. Only if we cherish our own traditions can we pursue
this relationship with integrity.
Jews and Christians must work together for justice and peace. Jews and Christians,
each in their own way, recognize the unredeemed state of the world as reflected in the
persistence of persecution, poverty, and human degradation and misery. Although justice
and peace are finally God's, our joint efforts, together with those of other faith communities,
will help bring the kingdom of God for which we hope and long. Separately and together, we
must work to bring justice and peace to our world. In this enterprise, we are guided by the
vision of the prophets of Israel:
It shall come to pass in the end of days that the mountain of the Lord's house
shall be established at the top of the mountains and be exalted above the
hills, and the nations shall flow unto it . . . and many peoples shall go and
say, "Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of
the God of Jacob and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in his
paths." (Isaiah 2:2-3)
Tikva Frymer-Kensky, University of Chicago
David Novak, University of Toronto
Peter Ochs, University of Virginia
Michael Signer, University of Notre Dame